The
Scriptures teach that every regenerate being is the possessor of two natures:
one, received by natural birth, which is wholly and hopelessly bad, and a
new nature, received through the new birth, which is the nature of God Himself,
and therefore wholly good.
The following Scriptures will sufficiently manifest what God thinks of the old, or Adam, nature:
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psa. 51:5.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jer. 17: 9. [Dr. Young's literal rendering of this passage is: "Crooked is the heart above all things, and it is incurable—who doth know it?"]
There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Rom. 3:10-12.
God does not say that none of the unregenerate are refined, or cultured, or able, or sweet tempered, or generous, or charitable, or religious, even, but He does say that none are righteous, none understand God, or seek after God.
It is one of the sorest of faith's trials to accept the divine estimate of human nature; to realize that our genial and moral friends, who, not infrequently, are scrupulous in the discharge of every duty, who are filled with sympathy for all the woes and all the aspirations of humanity, and strenuous in the assertion of human rights, are yet utter contemners of God's rights, and untouched by the sacrifice of His Son, whose Divinity they with unspeakable insolence deny, and whose Word they contemptuously reject. A refined and gentle lady who would shrink with horror from the coarseness of giving a fellow-creature the lie, will yet make God a liar every day. (1 John 1:10; 5:10.) And this difficulty is vastly increased for thousands by the current pulpit laudations of humanity. How startling the contrast between appearances and realities in the time before the flood.
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that (i.e., improving still upon that), when the sons of God (descendants of Seth) came in unto the daughters of men (descendants of Cain) and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown. Gen. 6:4.
And so it appeared that the world was growing better, a continual improvement could be traced, and the apparent result of the unholy intermarriage of the godly with the worldly was the lifting up of human nature to still grander heights.
But, just here:
GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen. 6:5.
See, further:
For from within, out of the HEART of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man. Mark 7:21-23.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2:14.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Rom. 8:7, 8.
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath. Eph. 2:3.
By these it appears that the unconverted man has a threefold incapacity. He may be gifted, or cultured, or amiable, or generous, or religious. He may pay his honest debts, be truthful, industrious, a good husband and father—or all these together—but he can neither obey God, please God, nor understand God.
The believer, on the contrary, while still having, unchanged and unchangeable, his old nature, has received a new nature which, "after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
The following Scriptures will show the origin and character of the new man:
It will be seen that regeneration is a creation, not a mere transformation: the bringing in a new thing, not the change of an old. Just as we receive human nature by natural generation do we receive the divine nature by re-generation.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee (Nicodemus, a moral, religious man), Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were BORN, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but OF God. John 1:12, 13.
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:26.
[It will be observed what bearing these Scriptures have upon that specious and "taking" but utterly unscriptural phrase, so popular in our day, "the universal fatherhood of God, and the universal brotherhood of man"—an expression all the more dangerous for the half-truth of the last clause. Not all who are born, but all who are born again are the children of God. The Scripture tells us indeed that Adam was the son of God, but it also is careful to add that Seth was the son of Adam.] (Luke 3:38.)
And that ye put on the NEW man, which after God is CREATED in righteousness and true holiness. Eph. 4:24.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a NEW CREATURE [literally, "a new creation"]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Cor. 5:17.
And this "new man" is Christ Himself.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, BUT CHRIST LIVETH IN ME: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:20.
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory. Col. 1:27.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When CHRIST WHO IS OUR LIFE shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Col. 3:3, 4.
For to me to live is CHRIST. Phil. 1:21.
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of THE DIVINE NATURE. 2 Pet. 1:4.
And if CHRIST BE IN YOU, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8:10.
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that HATH THE SON, hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. 1 John 5:11, 12.
But this new, divine nature, which is Christ's own, subsists in the believer together with the old nature. It is the same Paul who could say, "Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," who also says, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing," Rom. 7:18, and, "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me." Rom. 7:21. It was Job, the "perfect and upright man," who said, "I abhor myself." It was Daniel, eminently a man of God, who said, "My comeliness was turned in me into corruption," when he saw the glorified Ancient of Days.
Between these two natures there is conflict. Study carefully the battle between the two "I's" —the old Saul and the new Paul in Romans 7:14-25. It is an experience like this which so discourages and perplexes young converts. The first joy of conversion becomes chilled, the walk becomes unwatchful, and the convert is dismayed to find the flesh, with its old habits and desires, reassert itself, and he is led to doubt his acceptance with God. This is his moment of greatest danger. Paul, in this crisis, cries out for deliverance, calling his old nature a "body of death." The law only intensifies his agony (though a converted man), and he finds deliverance from "flesh," not through effort, nor through striving to keep the law, but "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 7:24,25.
The presence of the flesh is not, however, an excuse for walking in it. We are taught that "our old man is crucified with Christ;" that, in that sense, we "are dead," and we are called upon to make this a constant experience by mortifying ("making dead") our members which are upon the earth.
The power for this is that of the Holy Spirit who dwells in every believer (1 Cor. 6.19), and whose blessed office it is to subdue the flesh.
But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. Gal. 5:16, 17. R.V.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Rom. 8:13.
Instead, therefore, of meeting the solicitations of the old nature by force of will, or by good resolutions, turn the conflict over to the indwelling Spirit of God.
The 7th of Romans is a record of the conflict of a regenerate man with his old self, and is, therefore, intensely personal. "I would," "I do not," "I would not, I do," is the sad confession of defeat which finds an echo in so many Christian hearts. In the eighth chapter the conflict still goes on, but how blessedly impersonal? There is no agony, for Paul is out of it; the conflict is now between "flesh"—Saul of Tarsus—and the Holy Spirit. Paul is at peace and victorious.
[It will be understood that this refers to victory over the flesh, such inward solicitations to evil as lust, pride, anger, etc.; temptations from without are met by recourse to Christ our High Priest.]
Consider attentively the following passages:
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Rom. 6:6.
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Phil. 3:3.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Col. 3:3.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6:11.
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Rom. 13:14.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. Rom. 8:12.
From Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15): Ten Outline Studies of the More Important Divisions of Scripture by C. I. Scofield. Philadelphia: Philadelphia School of the Bible, [1930?]. This edition is unabridged and unchanged, exactly as the author wrote it when it was first published in 1896.
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